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Lucy Tremblay died in 1983. So imagine her daughter-in-law’s surprise when she opened up Monday’s Vancouver Sun to see Lucy in a vaudeville photo from the 1910s or ’20s.

“When I saw it I almost fell out of my chair,” said Catherine Tremblay, 84.

As it turns out, Lucy Tremblay was the original owner of the print, which was part of a cache of vaudeville photos that recently turned up at MacLeod’s Books.

One of the photographs was signed “To Lucy Cage,” a common misspelling of Lucy’s maiden name, Lucy Caze.

“I started working on the family trees in 1960,” Tremblay explains.

“I (found that) the spellings of names are different in families, because a lot of (people) way back then were illiterate. Everything was in handwriting, so a ‘z’ could be taken for a ‘g’ in someone’s handwriting.”

It’s a rare name — only four Cazes died in British Columbia between 1872 and 1991, and they were all related to Lucy (her parents, sister and brother).

Tremblay isn’t quite sure how Lucy Caze’s old photos turned up at MacLeod’s. She has sold some stuff to Don Stewart of MacLeod’s in the past, but nothing that had any link to the family.

“I wouldn’t have sold anything that had Lucy in it,” she said.

When Stewart learned the photos were family mementoes, he decided to return the photos to Tremblay.

“They need to be back with the family,” said Stewart.

So Wednesday afternoon, Sun photographer Arlen Redekop and I brought the package of old photos to Tremblay. She returned the favour by allowing us to look through a family archive of everything Lucy.

There was a lot of stuff. Lucy Caze last graced a stage in 1922, but she held on to her old photos and press clippings for six decades until she died at 85.

Lucienne Marie Albertine Caze was born in St. Boniface, Man., in 1898, and moved to Vancouver in 1919 with her family.

Family lore has it her father, Charles Louis Napoleon Caze, was from a wealthy family in Paris, France, and came to Canada to avoid conscription into the French army. Lucy’s mother, Marie Gerard, was from Ile-a-la-Crosse, Sask., and was Metis (of French and native ancestry).

“They spoke French at home, they never spoke English,” said Tremblay.

“The mother was raised by the Grey Nuns (in St. Boniface), so the holy water was always close at hand. They were always crossing themselves with the holy water.

“During one storm the lights went out and the mother blessed all the kids, because they thought they were going to die in this storm. And when the lights came on, she (discovered she) had got the ink bottle instead of the holy water, and the kids were all covered in ink.”

Like many families in the early 1900s, the Caze family endured some tragedy. A daughter died of typhoid in St. Boniface; a son was gassed in the First World War, and died from it in 1924.

The surviving siblings took to the vaudeville stage.

“They were all very talented, very musical,” said Tremblay.

“Adrienne was a singer, and was noted for being able to reach high C. Lucy was a dancer. That’s where my husband’s father met her, watching her onstage.

“Lucy’s older sister, Marie-Anne, ended up playing piano jazz in Chicago in speakeasies, where Al Capone and his gang hung out.”

An old clipping said that Lucy began her stage career in Winnipeg at the Columbia Theatre, “The Home of Refined Musical Comedy and Photo-Plays.” She joined the Columbia Musical Comedy Company in March 1915, and also appeared in rival troupes like the Military Maids, the Elite Company and Bow Bells.

In Vancouver she appeared at the Columbia Theatre at 62 West Hastings St., and the Avenue Theatre at 711 Main. She retired from live performance after she married Alexander Tremblay in 1922, but she did have a stint as a teacup reader at Love’s Café at 779 Granville.

Lucy and Alexander had three children. Catherine Tremblay’s husband Marcel and his brother Jerome have both died, but their daughter Jean is alive, and is 91 years old. Three more kids died shortly after they were born, or in childhood.

The family theatrical tradition was carried on by Lucy’s sister Adrienne, who was cashier at the Kerrisdale Theatre for 24 years. She became such a local fixture the Province did a full-page profile on her in 1957.

Lucy’s son Jerome also was a ballet dancer who performed under the name Jerome Roberts.

“Jerry was a bachelor and absolutely adored his mother,” said Tremblay. “He was with her all the years right up till her death.”

Lucy sounds like quite a gal. She loved to mug for the cameras, right into her 80s. And when she went out, she was dressed to the nines.

“She had long, long fingernails,” laughs Tremblay,

“Furs and jewelry, that was her life. She would always push her sleeves up so you could see the diamonds.”

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